The following response was posted by Anne Snow <frosty@wn.com.au>
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further down this article it says
"Marcus Corbin, senior analyst with the non-profit Center for Defense
Information, a Pentagon watchdog founded by retired military officers,
said a trend toward "forward deployment" also threatens domestic
aircraft carrier bases. The Navy wants to shrink travel time by
stationing ships closer to the action. Guam and Hawaii are frequently
mentioned as bases, Corbin said."
it is not only Guam and Hawaii !
both the Abe Lincoln and the Carl Vinson now seem to have a "second
home" "defacto base" in Western Australia .......
The Vinson is here now training just 5 miles from my home in a town
named Lancelin!
we dont want any military training here but - no offense intended - we
particularly dont want foreign forces here ........ our own Navy is
quite capable of destroying our fragile environment and making our
community sick all on it's own *sarcasm*
last sunday we had Dr Doug Rokke, former US Army Major and head of the
Pentagon’s Depleted Uranium Project visit Lancelin.
he conformed our worse fears saying that he believed Lancelin has been
“chosen” to replace Vieques as a training ground for the US military.
visit www.seaswap.org for more information
if you want to keep those ships based in the USA download the McGowan
report ...... it details how a delagation from our state hovt visited
the USA last year and had talks with some of your admirals and companies
about ways to circumvent your Title ten" laws and do maintenence work
on US naval ships in Fremantle
if you want more information please contact me
Anne Snow
-----Original Message-----
From: CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>
To: cpeo-military@igc.topica.com <cpeo-military@igc.topica.com>
Date: Friday, 11 July 2003 12:13
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] Military bases on guard for closures
>Washington
>SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
>Military bases on guard for closures
>State escaped cuts in last four rounds, but its luck may be
running out
>By MIKE BARBER
>Thursday, July 10, 2003
>
>As Rep. Norm Dicks, dean of defense issues in Washington's
congressional
>delegation, sometimes jokes, the only military installation
Washington
>lost in the past 15 years was the officers club at Sand Point.
>
>Washington state has been so effective in shielding its nine major
>military bases during four rounds of nationwide closings since
1988 that
>it actually gained more defense jobs than any state. Nationwide,
97
>major military bases were closed, and California lost the most
defense
>jobs, 93,000 -- but Washington gained 18,000 and lost no turf.
>
>Yet although Dicks and others believe the military value of
Washington's
>bases has grown, as the Pentagon prepares for the latest round of
>closures, they've found no more room for smugness.
>
>Not with a weak economy that newly appreciates the 86,000
uniformed and
>civilian defense jobs that in 2001 provided nearly $8 billion in
defense
>payroll and contracts -- $1.3 billion in Seattle alone.
>
>And not with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld taking a more
aggressive
>stance. A defense undersecretary said in December that there are
no
>sacred cows; every major base in the nation is on the table and
more
>will be closed or merged in 2005 than in four previous rounds
combined.
>
>"We're taking it very seriously," Dicks said.
>
>Rumsfeld recently said the Joint Chiefs of Staff consider 23
percent of
>the nation's roughly 400 major domestic military bases obsolete.
Cutting
>them could free $3.6 billion a year for modernization programs
aimed at
>keeping men and women in uniform, and improving life for their
families,
>Rumsfeld said.
>
>"It is much more fun to be Santa Claus than to be denying things,"
>Rumsfeld said. Closing bases "is the last thing in the world I
want to
>do, but it's pretty clear we have to do it."
>
>This article can be viewed at:
>http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/130281_baseclose10.html
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